Monday, March 14, 2016

The Gathering Storm Of The Chinese Military

Pacific Theater: Communist China is completing infrastructure in the South China Sea with which it can project military aggression. The Obama U.S. power vacuum brings “change” to yet another region of the globe.

You’ve got to wonder if President Obama’s own national security personnel are crying out for help for America.

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His Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, in a Feb. 23 letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., made public last week, said, “Based on the extent of land reclamation and construction activity” in the Spratly Islands, “we assess that China has established the necessary infrastructure to project military capabilities in the South China Sea beyond that which is required for point defense of its outposts. These capabilities could include the deployment of modern fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and coastal defense cruise missiles, as well as increased presence of People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surface combatants and China Coast Guard (CCG) large patrol ships.”

This extensive military expansion is being made possible by China’s recent construction of more than a half-dozen artificial islands in the area: thousands of acres of new land for military activity. Beijing deployed various military vessels at its island outposts and “has installed military radars, most likely air-surveillance/early warning radars.”

China also “has constructed facilities to support the deployment of high-end military capabilities, including modern fighter aircraft” on the islands. Clapper believes “China will continue to pursue construction and infrastructure development at its expanded outposts in the South China Sea,” which will allow it to “be able to deploy a range of offensive and defensive military capabilities” so that “by the end of 2016 or early 2017, China will have significant capacity to quickly project substantial offensive military power to the region.”